1. Pull over, roll down your window, put your hands on the wheel of the car and apologize to the policeman for having run the light?

2. Pull over, roll down your window, put your hands on the wheel and, after asking the officer why you are being pulled over, politely respond you didn’t realize the yellow light was so short and you certainly didn’t intend to run a red light?

3. Pull over, get out of the car, face the car and put your hands on the roof, because you think that at age 19 and having dangerously run a light the officer might be concerned you are armed?

4. Continue driving, leading the police on a 12-minute high-speed chase from Northridge to Woodland Hills, California, calling 911 en route and telling the dispatcher, “I have a gun and I’ve been arrested before for possession of destructive devices…If they pull their guns, I’m gonna have to pull my gun out on them;” when finally forced to stop by police on the freeway, exiting the car and, while running away, occasionally turning to face the officers, at one point taking a shooting stance with arms outstretched with what could easily have been interpreted in the dim light to be a gun?

Congratulations if you picked # 4, which is what 19-year-old Abdul Arian did on April 6 on the streets of Los Angeles, costing him his life, cell phone in hand.

Addiction is often hidden, even from close family members. “Full House” child star Jodi Sweetin grew up, married a cop and was a full-on methamphetamine addict for at least two of the five years they were married—and the cop-husband didn’t have a clue.

Most of the time, observers—even close people in the case of illegal drugs—will see behaviors suggesting alcohol or other-drug addiction long before they see the use of such drugs. This could easily be one of those cases, because Arian’s family seems to imply they didn’t have a clue to any problems in what was otherwise a decent young man. But that’s addiction: Jekyll and Hyde, in spades.

Thanks for sharing this story. It is so true that often family members or friends fail to see the signs of addiction, or even if they have a hunch that a person has a problem, they are too often hesitant to confront the person.
What a sad, tragic outcome for this young man and his family.

Thank goodness he didn’t kill other innocent people.–It’s obvious that we all have such a long way to go in understanding and dealing with addicted people. What a huge dilemma.

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